Bingo is a traditional game of chance in which players play markers on a pattern of numbered squares, according to numbers drawn and announced by a caller. A standard bingo card is generally square shaped and is divided into twenty-five squares arranged in a regular array to form five columns and five rows. At the head of each column is one of the letters of the word bingo. Thus, above the first column is the letter B and each of the five squares in the B-column may contain one of the numbers between 1 and 15. The squares of the I-column may contain numbers 16 through 30. Under the N-column, all of the squares except the center square may contain numbers 31 through 45. Under the G-column, numbers 46 through 60 may appear in the squares, and, finally, under the O-column numbers 61 through 75 may be used. Traditionally, the center square or space is designated as a free space and may be marked by the player without any action by the caller.
In a traditional game of bingo, the caller selects a number by removing a marked ball from a container. Each ball is marked with a number between 1 and 75. If a player's bingo card contains the number that is called, the player covers that number with a marker, such as a transparent colored disk. The caller continues to draw balls and call numbers until one of the players has obtained a bingo. Typically, a bingo consists of having all five of the numbers in any of the rows, columns or diagonals of the bingo card.
Over the years, there have been few if any changes to the game of bingo. Because it is played essentially as a game of chance, a certain amount of luck is necessary to select a particular bingo card in the hopes of being the first to obtain a bingo in a given game. In addition, bingo is often used as a means of raising money for charitable organizations and it would be unprofitable for those organizations, if during the course of a bingo game, a large number of players obtained bingo at the same time. For these reasons, certain standards have developed with regard to the placement of numbers within the given squares of a bingo card. At the present time, there are thousands of different standard bingo cards. Each of the standard cards bears a unique numerical arrangement and a card bearing a particular designation number will have the same numerical arrangement no matter what part of the country the game of bingo is being played.
In an average bingo session, in addition to using standard cards and playing for the standard bingo, certain variations, or special games, are played. For example, one special game might consist of obtaining all of the numbers on a given card. Also one might try to obtain the four corners or different letters of the alphabet.
Over the years, there has been very little in the way of improving or altering the traditional game of bingo. Most improvements have been directed toward finding better ways to cover numbers during the course of a game. Other improvements relate to altering some of the number arrays within the individual card. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,909,001 (Feldhausen) and 3,386,739 (Lino).
However, none of the traditional aspects of bingo nor the improvements made in the prior art address the issue of providing an intellectual challenge to the player and creating greater elements of skill within the traditional setting of the game of bingo. The present invention is directed toward filling those needs.